Posted Oct 17, 2011 by Chris White

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Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye has called time on his professional boxing career, hanging up his gloves at the age of 31.

Haye, who made the announcement on his birthday, made it public knowledge that he didn’t intend to fight on after he turned 31, saying it was his intention “to retire on this day ever since lacing up the gloves as a skinny 10-year old.”

There had been speculation in the past week that Haye may put retirement on ice to fight Vitali Klitschko, the older brother of Wladimir – who beat him in what is now his last professional fight on 2nd July this year. However, the decision to retire has put an end to those rumours despite the Englishman allegedly stating before the circulation of the rumours that he would not be renewing his license with the British Boxing Board of Control.

Haye confirmed in his retirement press conference that Vitali had shown an interest in fighting him, but Haye’s camp were “hearing the wrong noises” from Klitschko’s side of things, leaving him of the belief that the fight may never happen, and certainly not any time soon.

The decision to retire was not an easy one for Haye, but he is adamant that it is the right decision, opting to call it a day rather than following the route taken by many other boxers and continuing to fight and spoiling their professional records, and, most importantly, getting hurt.

Haye’s record, love him or hate him, is still very impressive, finishing his career with statistics of 27 professional fights with 25 victories, 23 of which were by knockout, and just two defeats – to Wladimir Klitschko and Carl Thompson in 2004 as a cruiserweight.

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